Russell Millen
Former Policeman Russell Millen joined Waterloo Road as a student teacher in Series 2 Episode 7, some time after leaving the police force after being stabbed whilst trying to defend a woman from her abusive partner. The stabbing left him with a noticeable limp. Kim Campbell and Steph Haydock immediately took a shine to him. Russell started off his teacher training at Waterloo Road by being present during lessons taught by other teachers, but he believed that he could cope on his own, and unsuccessfully tried to persuade training mentor Andrew Treneman to let him have the class on his own during their shared lesson. During Russell's next lesson, he successfully persuaded co-teacher Grantly Budgen to pop out for a cup of coffee, leaving him in sole command of the class, however as soon as Grantly left, the pupils in the class immediately stopped trying to do their work and lost all sense of authority, throwing things around, and one girl took her phone out and started listening to music via earphones. The girl repeatedly ignored Russell's requests that she put the phone away until he confiscated it. The pupils then began mocking Russell's limp by calling him 'stumpy', and one boy, called Mike, started mimicking his northern irish accent, until Russell snapped and threatened to send the entire class to the cooler if anyone said one more word. Mike mocked his accent again, and another boy stood up, sarcastically thanked Mike for getting all of them sent to the cooler, and the whole class stood up and marched to the cooler, with Russell hastily lying to a passing Jack Rimmer that they were in fact going to the library. Later, after quickly buckling under the pressures of being a teacher and not being able to cope with the unruly pupils, Russell bought vodka from an off-licence and brought it into school, drinking some of it in the boys toilets. Afterwards, on the way downstairs, a lad coughed the word 'stumpy' under his breath on the way past. Russell shouted at him, but he claimed he coughed because he had a cold. The boy then went round the corner into an empty corridor where he began physically bullying a younger kid, throwing him against the wall. Russell saw this but tried to ignore it, almost turning away, before snapping and bursting through the doors into that corridor and battering the bully with his bag, shattering the vodka bottle inside, causing it to drip all over the floor. Andrew, who had seen Russell attacking the bully, took Russell into an empty room where he discovered that the liquid leaking everywhere was vodka. Russell admitted that he was an alcoholic. Andrew said it was best for Russell to leave permanently, and to not try to look for a teaching job elsewhere either. Russell is not seen again. Although it is never specifically said, we can infer from context that Russell's alcoholism was probably also a major factor in why he left the police force. Category:Series 2 characters Category:Teachers Category:English Teachers